Learning how horses are campaigned

[MattA147]

Hi there, hope everyone is good. 
 

I know a lot of experienced punters that can recognise a certain type of horse such as a Grand National horse or a Gold Cup horse (not necessarily winning those races but runs in those sorts of races and is aimed at them) by how it’s campaigned as well as the key races and type of form that show that a horse is heading for the given race. 
 

How can I begin to learn or figure this out and the key races/type of form in the calendar for a given race? Or the look/type of form for the high class races?
 

I hope this made sense and any help would be greatly appreciated. 
 

Many thanks

[Bang on]

13 hours ago, MattA147 said:

Hi there, hope everyone is good. 
 

I know a lot of experienced punters that can recognise a certain type of horse such as a Grand National horse or a Gold Cup horse (not necessarily winning those races but runs in those sorts of races and is aimed at them) by how it’s campaigned as well as the key races and type of form that show that a horse is heading for the given race. 
 

How can I begin to learn or figure this out and the key races/type of form in the calendar for a given race? Or the look/type of form for the high class races?
 

I hope this made sense and any help would be greatly appreciated. 
 

Many thanks

Some trainers will mention in the racing post that race X is the long term target. Generally the bigger owners and higher profile trainers will be the ones aiming at the festivals.

However , some trainers target races at their local/favourite track, the Racing post again provide details in a yearly book giving the stats for all trainers which could be studied.

If you are looking to just predict winners, watching races will be a big help. Also remember, every horse is on a training cycle, usually about 16 weeks from start to a winning finish, walking, trotting, cantering, and fast work. During this time they may run the horse and get beat, this often lowers the handicap mark for when it is 'fully tuned up'. This is how horses often 'reverse form' with a rival, they may be on different parts of their training cycle. Without inside knowledge we often have to use 'guess work' and recent form. I often look for trainers hitting form, especially the smaller stables, as they will work all of their horses together. The bigger stables may just be working one barn and not all of them will be on the same cycle.

[richard-westwood]

My advice is .....look at historic winners.....gold cup ....champ hurdle etc and look how they were campaigned in the 12 monthes prior ......you will most certainly see a pattern especially at the higher levels and that's a good starting point 

[Zilzalian]

My advice especially if your just starting out is try not to over complicate things, learn as you go.

However, the obvious thing to say is consider the classics and group 1's 2's 3's and work back from them on the flat.

even more obvious is most half decent jumpers are (wrongly in my opinion) all steered toward Cheltenham in march and or then Aintree.

The Racing post used to have a "big race entries post" probably still do. I find bet365 anti post useful for indications although caution is needed when going through those lists.